Anthrocon Thoughts

There was a time when I could not wait for AC. I went to 3 in Philly and 3 in Pittsburgh and as time went on my opinion continued to sour. Let's face it. It IS the biggest furry gathering on the planet. It is our Mecca. We must make the Haj. It's just that one thing I HATE in all aspects of life is hassles. I hate to hassle other people and I really hate it when people hassle me. I want to get my business done and get going. One problem with bigger conventions as of late is the availability of hotel rooms. I really hate scrambling to make reservations a year in advance and being online at precisely the right moment to get a room or else you're S.O.L. I chastised Belic because I had plans to attend Furfright in October, almost 4 months from now, and being met with only a standby reservation. No room, no con. I waited a bit to make a reservation for FC thinking with 2 hotels it shouldn't be a problem. It wasn't, but now I'm hearing the Hilton is a poorer choice. We will just wait and see.

I have already heard that the Dorkai are being elevator Nazis. Sure, at a bigger con there needs to be some control because from what I have experienced and seen on YouTube, stupid furries + elevators = broken elevators. Once again, it's bad when you can't get to and from the con (especially in fursuit) because you can't even get off of your hotel floor.

One of the reasons why I like going to cons is to socialize with friends. At a huge con that becomes nearly impossible because if you want to meet 10 friends but each of them wants to meet 10 friends, there's really not a lot of opportunities to get together for meaningful conversation. I think scritchwuff and fox_cub have the right idea at AC where they basically throw a continuous party. You almost never have to wonder where they are because 90% of the time they will be at the party. The downside to that, however, is that you get to see very little of the con. With that being said, however, I also tend to always be at the wrong place at the wrong time at big cons because something fun is happening at Point A and I'm at Point B. Whenever something fun is happening at Point B, I'm at Point A.

The one thing AC has going for it is the location. I like the vibe of Pittsburgh. I'm quite happy to just sit on the roof of the Convention Center and gaze out over the river. I like walking through downtown and I like the train-watching opportunities. I could live without the heat and humidity, however, especially when fursuiting.

Perhaps I'll make a return trip in the future, perhaps not. If I can get a good core group of friends together to hang out for the entire weekend, I might do it. I know there has been talk about doing a trip to Washington DC. Perhaps we could tack on a side trip to AC via the train. *shrugs* If not, there certainly is no shortage of smaller cons with an equally good, just not as frantic, vibe.